A Pale-Skinned Man Or Woman, Costumed In Our
Ugly, Graceless Clothes, Reminds One Not Pleasingly, Artistically At
Least, Of Our Dim, Pale Islands.
Every Oriental costume from the Levant
to China floats through the streets - robes of silk, satin, brocade, and
white
Muslin, emphasized by the glitter of "barbaric gold;" and Parsees
in spotless white, Jews and Arabs in dark rich silks; Klings in Turkey
red and white; Bombay merchants in great white turbans, full trousers,
and draperies, all white, with crimson silk girdles; Malays in red
sarongs, Sikhs in pure white Madras muslin, their great height rendered
nearly colossal by the classic arrangement of their draperies; and
Chinamen of all classes, from the coolie in his blue or brown cotton,
to the wealthy merchant in his frothy silk crepe and rich brocade, make
up an irresistibly fascinating medley.
The English, though powerful as the ruling race, are numerically
nowhere, and certainly make no impression on the eye. The Chinese, who
number eighty-six thousand out of a population of one hundred and
thirty-nine thousand, are not only numerous enough, but rich and
important enough to give Singapore the air of a Chinese town with a
foreign settlement. Then there are the native Malays, who have crowded
into the island since we acquired it, till they number twenty-two
thousand, and who, besides being tolerably industrious as boatmen and
fishermen, form the main body of the police. The Parsee merchants, who
like our rule, form a respectable class of merchants here, as in all
the great trading cities of the East. The Javanese are numerous, and
make good servants and sailors. Some of the small merchants and many of
the clerks are Portuguese immigrants from Malacca; and traders from
Borneo, Sumatra, Celebes, Bali, and other islands of the Malay
Archipelago are scattered among the throng. The washermen and grooms
are nearly all Bengalees. Jews and Arabs make money and keep it, and
are, as everywhere, shrewd and keen, and only meet their equals among
the Chinese. Among the twelve thousand natives of India who have been
attracted to Singapore, and among all the mingled foreign
nationalities, the Klings from the Coromandel coast, besides being the
most numerous of all next to the Chinese, are the most attractive in
appearance, and as there is no check on the immigration of their women,
one sees the unveiled Kling beauties in great numbers.*
[*The Singapore census returns for 1881 are by no means "dry reading,"
and they give a very imposing idea of the importance of the island. It
is interesting to note that of the 434 enumerators employed only seven
were Europeans!
The number of houses on the island is 20,462; the total population is
139,208 souls, viz., 105,423 males and 33,785 females. The total
increase in ten years is divided as follows: -
Europeans and Americans 823
Eurasians 930
_Chinese_ 32,194
Malays and other natives of the Archipelago 6,954
Tamils and other natives of India 637
Other nationalities 559
Among these "other nationalities" the great increase has been among the
Arabs, who have nearly doubled their numbers. Among the "Malays and
other natives of the Archipelago" are included, Achinese, Boyanese,
Bugis, Dyaks, Jawi-Pekans, and Manilamen.
The European resident population, exclusive of the soldiers, is only
1,283. _The Chinese population is_ 86,766; the Malay, 22,114; the
Tamil, 10,475; the Javanese, 5,881; and the Eurasian, 3,091. In the
very small European population 19 nationalities are included, the
Germans numerically following the British. Of 15,368 domestic servants,
only 844 are women.]
These Klings are active and industrious, but they lack fibre
apparently, and that quick-sightedness for opportunities which makes
the Chinese the most successful of all emigrants. Not a Malay or a
Kling has raised himself either as a merchant or in any other capacity
to wealth or distinction in the colony. The Klings make splendid
boatmen, they drive gharries, run as syces, lend small sums of money at
usurious interest, sell fruit, keep small shops, carry "chit books,"
and make themselves as generally useful as their mediocre abilities
allow. They are said to be a harmless people so far as deeds go. They
neither fight, organize, nor get into police rows, but they quarrel
loudly and vociferously, and their vocabulary of abuse is said to be
inexhaustible. The Kling men are very fine-looking, lithe and active,
and, as they clothe but little, their forms are seen to great
advantage. The women are, I think, beautiful - not so much in face as in
form and carriage. I am never weary of watching and admiring their
inimitable grace of movement. Their faces are oval, their foreheads
low, their eyes dark and liquid, their noses shapely, but disfigured by
the universal adoption of jewelled nose-rings; their lips full, but not
thick or coarse; their heads small, and exquisitely set on long,
slender throats; their ears small, but much dragged out of shape by the
wearing of two or three hoop-earrings in each; and their glossy, wavy,
black hair, which grows classically low on the forehead, is gathered
into a Grecian knot at the back. Their clothing, or rather drapery, is
a mystery, for it covers and drapes perfectly, yet has no _make_, far
less fit, and leaves every graceful movement unimpeded. It seems to
consist of ten wide yards of soft white muslin or soft red material, so
ingeniously disposed as to drape the bust and lower limbs, and form a
girdle at the same time. One shoulder and arm are usually left bare.
The part which may be called a petticoat - though the word is a slur
upon the graceful drapery - is short, and shows the finely turned
ankles, high insteps, and small feet. These women are tall, and
straight as arrows; their limbs are long and rounded; their appearance
is timid, one might almost say modest, and their walk is the poetry of
movement. A tall, graceful Kling woman, draped as I have described,
gliding along the pavement, her statuesque figure the perfection of
graceful ease, a dark pitcher on her head, just touched by the
beautiful hand, showing the finely moulded arm, is a beautiful object,
classical in form, exquisite in movement, and artistic in coloring, a
creation of the tropic sun.
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